Srikanth
EBTL is one of the leading companies in home, corporate and hospitality automation segment in the global market with the most innovative and simplified home automation system.
TechiExpert had an opportunity to talk with the co-founder Monish Salhotra on how they addressing home automation system
What is the startup and what is that one problem it solves?
EBTL is one of the leading companies in home, corporate and hospitality automation segment with the most innovative and simplified automation system. EBTL was conceptualized by IIT Kharagpur alumni in 2013. It began with a simple idea of making shock-proof switches, the concept then evolved over the years into a wall mounted smart switch, Amour.
The current version 3.0 of Amour works on Wi-Fi and can be controlled by touch, smartphones and voice commands. With a vision of – ‘Har Ghar Amour!’, EBTL started operations in 2015. The company envisioned allowing people to use switches in their homes without any fear of being jarred by electric shocks as so commonly happens.
Background of founders
Interestingly we were all a part of IIT and like every other student, we dreamt of doing something unique and out of the box. We identified that there was a problem of getting shock from the modular switches.
We wanted to create something which was shockproof and would make people life hustle and enter a business which would scale up in the near future and make us earn more money. Our first product connect was such a great experience that we aligned quickly and were on the same page. We are 30 employees in total in the organization.
How did they start working on this idea & Motivation to productive?
The company envisions allowing people to use switches in their homes, at work or anywhere without any fear of being jarred by electric shocks, which is highly common as an incident. The inception of the brand actually began because one of the founders is highly phobic to electric shocks.
All the founders realized it had a scalable potential and a market that will have demand for such products. We had always felt that the Home Automation systems market in India was underdeveloped and there was a huge difference in the existing systems and the demand of the consumers.
To fill in this gap, we developed Amour, which is user-friendly, easy to install and much more advanced automation system. This created an apt market for EBTL products and has been growing exponentially ever since.
What’s their USP (unique selling point)
The automation system that is designed by EBTL is meant to serve the Indian audience. It has been conceptualized indigenously and has been crafted from the start to serve the automation needs of Indian consumers. This means that products created by EBTL meet best the demands of Indian infrastructure.
While other automation systems are often first designed and then realigned to meet the requirements of Indian consumers, EBTL’s home automation systems have been conceived from inception to best serve the demands of the Indian market. This has created a niche for our brand and has proven to be beneficial for our consumers.
Early days struggle.
Hardest, I must say. These are the days when you are not sure about the response from the market. You are not sure if your product is really going to pick up in the market. You are not sure about the revenues, sales, employees, financial, etc. I believe this is the moment when you really need to believe in yourself and your idea.
This is the when you have to put in efforts more than the worldly means. The persistence and honest efforts in the right direction really pays off well and did it for us as well. During initial days maintaining the positive attitude towards your goal is very important. A positive team and supporting group of friends and family also play a major role.
Funding received
We are a Boot Strapped Firm.
User base they have achieved till now.
Our success story can be defined by the way we have grown as an organization over the past few years. We have witnessed a growth rate of 20% Y-o-Y, and today we can proudly say that we are the market leaders in the automation sector in India. Over the last year, we have forayed in five new countries – Middle East, USA, UK, Africa, and South East Asia and are confident to reach greater heights in the following years. With a pragmatic view and thorough insights of the automation industry, the business and understanding the potential of future demands of the sector, we are the only company who is well prepared for the future disruption in this market.
Future Roadmap.
Since the time we have incepted EBTL, we have witnessed a steady growth in terms of revenue as well as the demand for the products. This financial year’s revenue is expected to be INR ~20Cr but with our tremendous growth of 20% annually we are projecting to achieve our INR 100Cr target by the end of FY 2021. Along with our aim to cross the 100+ crore mark in terms of revenue by the year 2021, we also aim to foray into 50 countries over next, 2-3 years.
